So, I know it’s not an actual shock diamond. I couldn’t find the name of the phenomena or anything else through Google. My hypothesis is that the air is leaving the hose nozzle with enough force and velocity to compress the air ahead of the stream faster than it can be displaced, causing a high pressure spot that diffracts light differently and this being visible. ‘shock diamond’ is about 2mm diameter and appears acorn-like in shape, acorn cap facing the nozzle. Is there a name of this phenomena and if so could someone long me a photo or video showing some examples.
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They definitely can be actual shock diamonds. It takes a surprisingly low pressure differential to get air to go supersonic…your average 100psi air hose is more than capable of pulling it off (you only need about 30 psi to get supersonic at normal conditions).
Popular Science did an article with links to cool videos about doing this with bottle rockets, which are just compressed air power:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a25777/soda-bottle-rocket-shock-diamonds/
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